GMR’s Hyderabad International Airport handled two more special passenger charter flights of Air India to evacuate 168 US nationals in two separate flights on Friday. The first special flight of Air India , an airbus A320 aircraft, landed at 1.52 p.m. from Mumbai and departed with 70 US-bound passengers (69 adults and one infant) at 3.03 p.m. for Mumbai.
The second special flight , an airbus A320 aircraft, landed at 3.12 p.m. from Mumbai and departed with 98 US-bound passengers (96 adults and two infants) at 4.24 p.m. for Mumbai. Both flights were purely domestic and operated from the main passenger terminal building and, as per the flight itinerary, the passengers were to be further connected with Delta Airlines from Mumbai to their final destination in the US, said an official spokesman.
The US-bound passengers started to reach the airport between 12 noon and 2 p.m. from different parts of the twin cities in coordination with the US Consulate and the Telangana government. Special screening and safety measures were in place during the flight’s handling to protect against the COVID-19 threat, including thermal screening prior to terminal entry, mandatory social distancing enforced through special queuing arrangements at all passenger processing points.
To meet this emergency requirement, a select group of personnel from GHIAL Terminal Operations, Airside Operations, Airport Operations & Control Center, Air Traffic Control, IT Team, Central Industrial Security Force and others were available to ensure safe and seamless departure of the passengers, he said.
On Tuesday, 99 passengers had flown to the US from here via Mumbai by another special AI flight and before that on March 31, a group of 38 German citizens, a few of them sourced from Chennai too, had flown to Frankfurt also via Mumbai. Another special medical evacuation flight of IndiGo had dropped eight crew members here and departed for Chennai with five other crew members on March 28, he added.
Published - April 10, 2020 11:55 pm IST
